student politics
I am not a wee small tiny lad, and am quite quick of the acid tongue so I don't tend to bring out the bullies in others. But when I was younger...

Having just started Polytechnic in London I emerged from a tube station to find a series of trestle tables all set up with the posters hanging down the front declaring it to be 'Socialist Worker' new issue day. Hey ho. However, as I turned to leave, one of the free-roaming man-woman-thing sellers with a braided bleached coloured mullet, 13 piercings and a ludicrous beret blocked my path, proffering the paper and saying 'are you political?' in an aggressive, sneerful way.

Mind's a blank... no answers... thsi was John Major's britain and nothing was so bad that I felt it worth talking about. "No" said I with a hopeless shrug and a grin.

The woman (must have been all of 6 months older than me but all fired up with righteous anger) started yelling out loud "Don't yu think it was time your voice was heard amongst the deception and lies of the tory government? Don't you think the oppression of the poor should be fought over all the way up to the steps of westminster? Don't you think we should stop the (first) Gulf war?" and waiting to see if I would be cowed in fear, intoxicated by her passionate argument, or a latent communist waiting in the wings.

My answer- (without thinking) "Nope. And I think it's right to kick Iraq out of Kuwait".

My god, as I walked away the tirades of abuse that followed me down the road were reaching screaming pitch and she threw some of the Socialist Worker papers after me (don't fly very well....) and I made good my escape.

The next day at the Freshers' fair, various societies and clubs had stalls out in the Polytechnic's main halls, anthing from film clubs to rowing to tennis to politics. Ah, politics.

Wandering about the maze of stands I was called out to by people behind one of the stalls- "Hey mate, want to make a difference in politics?".

An entirely new set of people were standing behind the - you've guessed it - Socialist Worker Party bedecked stall. Opposite them, for some bizzare reason the Young Conservatives had been given their pitch. The two lads behind the stall lolled back on their chairs with lazy smugness borne of family riches. So I went over to their stall and took some pamphlets and a blue smiley badge with me, much to the boos of the socialist worker yobs opposite.

Oh, I didn't join anyone apart from the Keith Chegwin Appreciation Society. And then two months later I stopped going to Poly. But I learned a leson or two that day about how NOT to recruit people to your cause.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Wed 26 Sep 2007, 21:04, Reply)